You are here

Guidance Note - Civic Innovation

Fri, 2018-12-07 06:08 -- Adam Beck

Australia’s peak smart cities body, Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand, has released a guideline to help drive greater citizen-led innovation.

Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand (SCCANZ) Executive Director Adam Beck acknowledged the importance of “ensuring our businesses and citizens are front and centre in catalysing innovation in our communities and that technology and data can play a significant role.”

The lead for the project, and Chair of the Smart Cities Council Centre for Civic Innovation, Amanda Newbery, agreed on the importance of this agenda. “Enabled and empowered by technology and access to public and city-wide data, citizens and businesses can play a fundamental role in driving innovation in cities, with a focus on improving social and economic outcomes for local communities”, Newbery explained.

“Our goal with this Guidance Note is to help build capacity and capability within government and industry to foster civic innovation as a means for delivering better cities for people”, Newbery said.

The Guidance Note defines civic innovation through five core principles, including citizen-led innovation, citizen-centric smart city planning and investment, active citizenship and democracies, unlocking the knowledge of citizens and building the digital capacity and capability of citizens.

Mr Beck said “the civic innovation guidance note defines a concept that is regularly used but rarely understood, and we have been focused on producing a resource that is concise, articulate and hopefully widely adopted.”